The Harrison County Spelling Bee was held Tuesday at Liberty High School.  Twenty-one competitors represented 12 county elementary schools, five county middle schools, St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, Heritage Christian School and homeschool students.

 

Claiming first place was MacKenzie Gould, a sixth grade honor roll student at Bridgeport Middle School, where she is a member of the school danceline.

 

“It was very exciting and she did a fantastic job,” said Heidi Griffith, secondary curriculum coordinator for Harrison County Schools. “She had really studied hard and was absolutely beaming ear to ear.”

 

The bee started with 21 spellers in grades 4 through 8, who took turns spelling assigned words. The showdown ultimately came down two students.

 

“The way it works is if someone misspells a word, the other student has to spell it correctly plus spell an additional word correctly to win,” Griffith said. “And that’s just what happened.”

 

That word was “postmortem.” MacKenzie nabbed the correct spelling after remaining opponent Savannah Jones of Big Elm Elementary had a missed attempt. The word which MacKenzie had to spell to seal the win was “tomatillo.”

 

Likely, not many are familiar with the “tomatillo” plant – also known as the Mexican husk tomato – let alone how to spell it, Griffith said.

 

“It’s a Spanish word and this case proves that preparation for the spelling bee is absolutely not about memorizing a list, but knowing the languages and the letters which match up grammatically with the words,” she said.

 

Spelling bees across the country utilize a list generated by Scripps National. Serving as pronouncer for the Harrison County event was Rhea Dyer of Best Life Therapy and Best Minds. Competitors drew numbers for order of competition and were given a word to spell from the list, Griffith said. That word was presented and used in a sentence. Students had the option of asking for a definition, alternate pronunciation or to be used on another sentence.

 

Students advanced to Tuesday’s Harrison County Spelling Bee by winning first place in their respective school spelling bees, held October through December. 

 

Savannah Jones claimed the runner-up spot. Earning third through fifth places, respectively, were Louis Aldridge; a homeschool student; James Howell of Salem Elementary and Alex Hummel of Washington Irving Middle School. Earning the alternate spot was Robert Mendez.

 

All of those students will advance to the RESA 7 Regional Spelling Bee, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 18 at Bridgeport Conference Center.  They will all start fresh – on an even playing field.

 

“The public is invited – just like a sporting event,” Griffith.

 

The county spelling bee had originally been set for Jan. 8, with Jan. 9 designated as the “snow date.” Since school was held neither of those days due to inclement weather, the event was postponed until Tuesday.

 

“I was glad we finally got to do it,” Griffith said. “I was really proud of the students because they worked so hard to get there and were so excited when they did get there.”  

 

Editor's Note: Pictured is MacKenzie Gould with Dr. A. Mark Manchin, superintendent of Harrison County Schools.